Ian Fleming

Ian Fleming was a man of varied experience and talents. He worked as a journalist and a Naval Intelligence officer, he excelled at sport and relished travel, and he created the world's best-loved spy one day when he sat at his typewriter in Jamaica. He wanted to find a quiet name, a name with no 'romantic overtones', and he found it in one of his Jamaican 'bibles' - Birds of the West Indies by James Bond.

Theories abound over who could have been the real-life inspiration for Ian Fleming's famous spy: could it have been an officer from Fleming's time in the Naval Intelligence, Ian's brother Peter Fleming, or maybe Bond was simply a pseudonym for Ian Fleming's inner self?

Whatever the answer, Ian Fleming's legacy to the world was indeed 'the spy story to end all spy stories' - the great story, spanning 14 original books, of James Bond - the world's favourite Secret Agent.